Could Retired Space Shuttles Be Used as Space Stations?

But what really makes a shuttle station a bad idea is the lack of amenities. The shuttles don’t have room for all the exercise equipment that astronauts need to stave off rapid bone and muscle loss. They don’t have individual bedroom compartments like the ISS does; to get some shuteye, astronauts instead zip themselves in sleeping bags and Velcro themselves to a wall. They don’t even have a garbage chute. “They’d have to figure out some way to bundle up waste—human waste included—and toss it out a hatch,” Curie says. “And because there isn’t a launcher to shoot the waste into the atmosphere to burn up, it would just float and collect around the outside of the station.”